Divinity: Original Sin

[RobVarak]

Rather than threadjacking the Destiny thread, I decided to start my own.

This is easily the best RPG I've played in a decade or more...and it's not particularly close.

The game wraps incredibly smart writing and wonderfully complex systems around a tactical combat engine that in and of itself is a worthy competitor to something like XCOM.

The story is old fashioned in the best possible sense. It's like D&D in that you're dealing with a local story that branches out rather than the same, tired SAVE THE WORLD FROM THE DEMON SPAWN write-by-numbers crap that we've seen forever. They set up dialogue between the characters that allows you to get a sense of actual role playing and they do it in a way that ends up having meaningful effect on the characters in-game performance.

It's completely bonkers and damn near perfect. Sell blood if you have to.

[TCrouch]

Good idea, because I wanted to talk about it more there, as well.

I'm still in the starter town area, but I'm already getting some of that vibe. It's not like I'm being asked to save the world, I'm being asked to deal with very specific issues for that town. I didn't know which one was a 'priority' or not, but in talking to some NPCs around town, I made that determination myself. I have a fraction of the time invested that you do, but I'm already impressed with it. Not many games refuse to hold your hand these days, but also don't punish you needlessly.

[Danimal]

I have a question but don't want to ruin it for anyone else but this is still not far into the game

Anyone have a good strategy for dealing with the burnt archers and other creature on the way to this church? I put this area off as i was doing the murder investigation and what not. Now it's either this area of the Cove with the creature who shits crabs. I have like 30 hours into this game and feel like I have gotten no where.

[RobVarak]

Sent you a PM, Dan.

The combat in this game just keeps getting better and better. Such a brilliantly designed game in that regard.

[Danimal]

Thanks Rob!

This is GOTY material for sure.

[Macca00]

GOTY

If Dragon Age: Inquisition or Civilization:Beyond Earth (different genre I know) are any better than this I think I will lose my job as my ass will be glued to my computer chair.

I think I'm relatively close to the end game in Divinity and don't want this to end - I'm now going back and trying to finish the dozens upon dozens of different side quests just so I don't have to go to the last temple! The combat in this game just so bloody awesome. I usually all about story in games, especially in RPGs, but in Divinity I just to min-max my characters and fight! It almost feels blasphemous to say but I think I might like this even more than The Witcher 2 (and I love that game so much I own three f***in copies - a 360 one still in shrinkwrap, a Steam copy and a GOG copy that I played first).

[Danimal]

Every time I play this game it turns into a 4 hour affair. I also keep thinking to myself, why doesn't this have an easy to use construction set, could you imagine being able to create our own adventures.

[Macca00]

I finally finished it this morning - 82 hours!! EIGHTY TWO HOURS!?! Awesome, awesome combat. Never got sick of it - if they put out an expansion tomorrow I would dive right back in!

Wrote this (before I had finished the game) - http://maximumpixelation.com/2014/09/12 ... pc-review/

GOTY (unless Civ and DA: I bring their A games)

[RobVarak]

Finished. 109 hours.

Worth every minute. Best RPG I've played in a dog's age. The combat was so damn good that I would find myself looking for encounters just to play with the tactics. That is not something I've ever done before in any RPG.

Can't recommend this game highly enough.

[TCrouch]

I wish I could get further into it. I would leave the starting town and get annihilated any time I'd take more than 15 steps in any direction. Everywhere I went, I'd get swarmed by things that would 2-hit me or poison me or wipe me inside of 2 or 3 turns. I thought it was ironic that I felt like I wasn't being punished, but of course I learned that the tutorial and getting INTO the first town seemed to be 1/100th of the difficulty once you pass through the gates and head OUT of that town!

I see all the comments, and I could see the depth and promise underneath, but I got so frustrated with loading and reloading and paranoia of going anywhere that I haven't gone back to it.

[Danimal]

I felt this way at first, especially because I ventured out without grabbing 2 more companions. The best thing to do is knock off some of the town quests that give you exp, but more skills / spells for your people. Then venture out, fight a battle and heal up. You'll start to get strategies that will work until you hit the next thing to kick your ass. The beginning can be very unforgiving if you just follow the murder quest without veering off course to do some other things.

[RobVarak]

You definitely can't leave town without both companions. Even then you should heed the advice of the guards. They'll tell you if you're experienced enough to survive the wilderness. Also, go west first. Each direction has differently leveled monsters.

One thing this game has done is reinforced my previous disdain for scaling level systems. It's more challenging this way but infinitely more fun. It's cool to miss the occasional quest only to return overly powerful and just wipe mobs out. Also extra rewarding when you're pushing the envelope on level difference.

[TCrouch]

I found one of them, but not the other. I think I still appreciate the old-school RPGs like this, but over the years I've adapted to the "where's the big yellow exclamation points?" method of questing. I could barely find quests to do, and I happened to stumble across the mage in the first town. Never did find a second companion. I am always hesitant to look stuff up in guides, but I don't know what else I'd do, other than searching every door and barrel and room.

[RobVarak]

I found one of them, but not the other. I think I still appreciate the old-school RPGs like this, but over the years I've adapted to the "where's the big yellow exclamation points?" method of questing. I could barely find quests to do, and I happened to stumble across the mage in the first town. Never did find a second companion. I am always hesitant to look stuff up in guides, but I don't know what else I'd do, other than searching every door and barrel and room.

You're not alone. This game is almost transgressive in the vigor with which it attacks the Diablo-ization of RPG's. You have to read the text, and in many cases read the actual books and scrolls you'll pick up. You need to remember seemingly insignificant bits of dialogue. It's pretty unforgiving but also very rewarding and immersive.

And you will, indeed you must, use a guide. There are some incredibly obtuse puzzles and quests...again like an old early 90's game (for better or worse). I actually texted Macca at one point wondering if this entire game was a ploy by Google to drive up their search traffic.

So I used a guide often and you see how long it took me. I'm still trying to figure out how Macca did it 20% faster, but I'm guessing he didn't spend quite as much time obsessively min/maxing.

Edit:

Also, while there is a respec option that opens later, it is not particularly palatable. You can redistribute all of your talents and attributes, but you lose all of your learned abilities. Thus, you'd have to travel the world buying a crapload of skill books. Level carefully.

[Danimal]

News about today this is coming to consoles in an enhanced edition. PC owners will get the enhanced edition for free. Expanded voice over, more story, same screen co-op play etc.

Also the developer has 2 more turn based rpg's in development.

[RobVarak]

Sequel Sequel Sequel!!!!!



http://www.pcworld.com/article/2976252/ ... -2014.html

[Danimal]

I backed the KS this morning. Got in on the cheap limited level. I like the prospect of 4 player but the reality is I don't know 3 people that would have the time to play it with me.

[Danimal]

Enhanced Edition is out today. Below is a list of some of the changes. If you own the original you get this free. I really wish I had someone to play this co-op with.

We have a short list & a long list of changes.
The long list contains over 1000 changes distilled from a change-list that contains more than 13000 changes! But since the short list is a bit more readable, we put that one here.
Full controller support for one and two players
Dynamic split-screen support for local co-op play
Sleek new UI for use with controller
Full AAA voice-overs for all characters
New sound effects and improvements made to existing effects
Main quest revamped to include more characters, more events, and more adventure
A new ending, with a reworked and expanded plot
Existing quests updated and polished
Storyline background expanded
Companions now banter and argue with one another
Invest skill points in the new Dual Wielding ability to improve your proficiency
Hurl elemental, area of effect, status-setting, and damage-causing grenades. This comes with the new Bombardier ability, letting you spend skill points to improve your proficiency.
Wands are brand new one-handed ranged weapons dealing elemental damage. They come pre-charged with an additional powerful skill that the player can invoke 1-4 times, depending on his or her Wand skill level. The skill also determines your attack range with wands (from barely-out-of-melee to bow-level).
Explorer Mode. Formerly "Casual," Explorer players will face less-fierce enemies and enjoy a higher chance of knocking them dead, freeing up the player's time to discover, craft, sleuth, and travel outside of combat.
Classic Mode. Formerly "Normal". What we suggest for first-time players (who've played a classic cRPG before).
Tactician Mode. A brand new game setting featuring smarter, stronger enemies to challenge combat-oriented players.
Honour Mode. All the challenge of Tactician Mode, but in Honour Mode you only have a single save and a single life (no resurrecting!) at your disposal. If your character goes down, it's game over.
Tactician and Honour modes feature re-designed encounters and puzzles, including new mechanics, monsters, skills, and challenges. Enemy AI is more intelligent and designed to defend against past players' most commonly-used tactics.
New traps have been added, making tactics, puzzles, and simply moving around in the world more challenging than ever.
New skills and skill system
New tiered skill system ('Novice', 'Adept', 'Master') allows you to learn devastating new abilities as you progress in your chosen school of magic.
15+ new skills featuring custom animations and damage
Existing encounters have been improved and re-balanced to provide a more consistent experience throughout all zones.
Now includes upgraded AI to better counter the player’s tactics
Updated system makes crafting more intuitive
New creatures - Elemental Wards, Enchanted Armours, Bolt-stricken Zombie, Arcane Vortex, Nether Jester, Poison Slug, Spitfire Totem, Void Crystal, Oilskin ExploSkeleton, Soul of Desperation, Angry Chest
New cut scenes added and old cut scenes improved
Skills have been rebalanced and redistributed into skill schools in more cohesive themes.
Balancing changes have made mid- and late-game combat more dynamic and engaging.
Existing Abilities and Talents have been rebalanced.
Weapon ability progression has been updated to differentiate play styles based on weapon types (e.g. the 'Two-handed weapons' theme now focuses on slow weapons that do monstrous damage with each strike, while 'Dual Wielding' is centered around unleashing a hail of rapid blows on your enemies.)
Vendors offer more variety and sell better loot.
Magical items are built up differently.
Items' use requirements have been revised.
Economy (gold value and rarity of all items) has been revised.
Treasure generation and traders have been overhauled to be less random and use a system that guarantees better variation in drops over time.
Weapons, armour, shields, potions, and statuses have been rebalanced.
Our top-secret formulas that calculate hit chances, crit chances, damage, armour, blocking, and more have all been carefully revised and improved.
'Saving throws' formula has been improved.
New items and item combos added for creating wands and grenades 360-degree camera, with improved art assets for viewing at all angles
Reworked visuals for improved performance
Textures were updated to improve performance DirectX 11 was added, which improves performance. Because of these changes, the game now only works on 64-bit Operating Systems.
New animations for new weapon types (wands and dual wielding)
New effects and animations for new skills, but also enhanced existing skills
New custom animations for all NPCs
New animations for new creatures and destructibles

[Danimal]

I know I'm just speaking to myself in this thread but I'm replaying this game and it's amazing to me how much better the game is with every character being voiced. 99% of them are done so very well and it makes getting into the story so much easier then reading walls of text. Jake's wife, the fish vendor etc. etc. all done and with such excellent quality.

If you enjoyed this game, even if you're not going to replay it I suggest spending 30 minutes just to see what a good job they did.

[TCrouch]

I actually did download it when I saw your mention the day it released and was pleasantly surprised by the voiceovers and controller support. But as with the first time I tried to play this game, I drift off an hour or so in when I'm not clear what to do, and I always seem to end up around poisonous zombies that 1-hit me.

Especially with my wife getting so into co-op gaming lately (played a bunch of Sword Coast with me, some Halo campaign missions, still nuts about Destiny), I keep wanting to have this work. We started it, and she got pretty into it, but again...something about it doesn't resonate with me and make me come back to it. After an hour or so I start mentally checking out, wanting to do something else.

[Danimal]

Best piece of advice i can give you is to immediately pick up the two companions one in the Tavern and the other one in the prison cell outside of the commander office. Then find a walk through for the Murder quest. I already played it once and forgot how to solve that it's so broken up. Once you get past that i find the game is much better. If you already beat that quest then perhaps there is no getting into it.

The combat is hard and unforgiving and seems especially geared towards spell casters using the right spells on the environment. Tanks are way less impactful in this game early on which is why both of my starting characters can cast spells.

[TCrouch]

I'm always the warrior class, which may explain it. I tried Knight, I tried Fighter or whatever, neither caught my interest. I found those companions but never did solve the murder quest, I don't think. I ended up in a graveyard and other places where it was (literally) painfully obvious that I shouldn't be there.

[Danimal]

I found and not saying this 100% accurate that solving the murder quest bumps you up some levels and makes life easier.